Kate Euart experienced a scary moment when she broke her right elbow last April during gymnastics practice.

The 9-year-old Buckhead resident, a rising fourth grader at Christ the King School, bounced back quickly from her mishap and continued her promising gymnastics career.

It was for this that Kate was named the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Comeback Athlete of the Year for the 2012-13 school year.

“I’m pretty excited I won and I think it’s a big honor to win this award and I think it’s fun, too,” Kate said.

Kate was one of eight finalists for the overall Comeback Athlete of the Year award who were initially selected as athletes of the month from October, 2012 to May by a panel from Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Kate, who took up the sport at age four, is a member of Buckhead Gymnastics.

She suffered her broken elbow in April, 2012 as she fell off the balance beam while attempting a routine handstand.

“When I hit the ground, I definitely knew that it wasn’t just twisted or sprained,” Kate said. “I’ve never broken a bone before, so it was a new feeling. So, I knew something was wrong with it. It was either broken or dislocated, or something like that.”

Kate was taken to Scottish Rite hospital, where her elbow was re-set and placed in a cast.

“The cast definitely didn’t feel great,” Kate said. “I remember waking up in the cast and crying, or something like that, because it was itching and it was hurting.”

Kate proved to be a fast healer as she only spent six weeks in the cast, which was quicker than expected.

“Naturally, being a nine-year-old, they’re resilient and that’s one of the things that Dr. [Allan] Peljovich from Children’s Healthcare said,” Kate’s mother Tamsin Euart said. “When he took off the cast, I asked ‘Are you sure you’re ready to take off the cast?’ and he said ‘They’re young, they’re resilient and they can come back from things a lot faster than you or I could.’”

From there, Kate moved on to physical therapy at Children’s Hospital of Atlanta twice a week for two months – doing strengthening exercises such as push-ups and lifting weight balls.

Kate returned to gymnastics about three weeks into her physical therapy last July, but she still had some concerns with her healing elbow.

“I was very cautious with my elbow,” Kate said. “I didn’t want it to happen again. Competition season was coming up and I didn’t want to miss that, but I was very careful with my arm.”

However, Kate has no problems with the elbow once she resumed her gymnastics training.

“When I got back, nothing was wrong with it,” Kate said. “I wasn’t putting a lot of pressure on it. I was putting a lot of pressure on the other arm, but that was the only thing. I t wasn’t that big of a problem. I could do everything I could.”

Kate’s father Jef Euart said he is proud of how his daughter bounced back from her injury.

“Obviously, I couldn’t be more proud of her, because it was a serious injury and she handled it very well,” Jef Euart said. “I think it’s like a lot of sports – baseball, football, basketball – where injuries happen and bad things go on. You’ve got to know to get up and persevere and she did that.”

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